Description
In this latest book, John Clark, author of the highly regarded "Beaches of Hawaii" series, gives us the many captivating stories behind the hundreds of Hawaii place names associated with the ocean—the names of shores, beaches, and other sites where people fish, swim, dive, surf, and paddle. Significant features and landmarks on or near shores, such as fishponds, monuments, shrines, reefs, and small islands, are also included. The names of surfing sites are the most numerous and among the most colorful: from the purely descriptive (Black Rock, Blue Hole) to the humorous (No Can Tell, Pray for Sex). Clark began gathering information for the "Beaches" series in 1972, and during the years that followed interviewed hundreds of informants, many of them native Hawaiians, and consulted dozens of Hawaiian reference books, newspapers, and maps. A significant amount of the oral history he collected was unrecorded and remained only in his notebooks and memory. Hawaii Place Names: Shores, Beaches, and Surf Sites is the final product of those years of research, and like its popular predecessors, it benefits substantially from Clark's having spent a lifetime surfing and swimming Hawaii's beaches. Presented in the same convenient format as Pukui, Elbert, and Mookini's Place Names of Hawaii, this rich compendium of information on Hawaii's surf, shore, and beach sites will satisfy visitors and residents alike.

Excerpt
In 1966 the University of Hawaii Press published the first edition of Place Names of Hawaii. Written by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, it contained 1,125 entries, all of which were place names in the Hawaiian language. In 1974 the press published the second edition by Pukui, Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini. It contained some four thousand entries, and this time it included place names in English and other languages. This edition, in the words of the authors, provided "a glossary of important place names in the State, including names of valleys, streams, mountains, land sections, surfing areas, towns, villages, and Honolulu streets and buildings." During the years that have followed its publication, the second edition of Place Names of Hawaii has become a standard reference in the literature of Hawaii.